Like I promised Stylers, I’m back! And on a Labor Day Monday, what better time for a little Manicure. Lately I have been swearing by OPI. To me it seems a better bang for your buck to spend $9 on a nail polish you can get many uses out of, then throwing your luck to the wind for a minimum of $15 gel manicure (praying all the while that they can do a decent job).

While many celebrated the St. Patrick’s Day holiday this past weekend with parades and plenty of beverages, the actual holiday is not until tomorrow the 17th of March! So for today’s Manicure Monday, I’m sharing an easy to-do stripe style inspired by the Irish holiday!

Simple black tips filled in with a line of green underneath. Solely green on the ring finger so it stands out. An easy, festive manicure to try out for the holiday! Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. As my gram always says – Wear Your Green!

Valentine’s Day is a mere 5 days away and whether you have a day planned with your someone special or an “I Hate Valentine’s Day” celebration underway, it’s tacit that you want to look your absolute best on V-Day.

Today’s Manicure Monday is one of the easiest manicures I’ve ever done and one of my favorites. The color used is Sally Hansen’s Right Said Red:

With just three simple sweeps of your favorite nail polish color, you have an intricate looking design that is not difficult at all!

1. Start on the right side of your nail with one sweep of the brush going about halfway down your nail.

2. Just to the left of that stroke (the middle of the nail), create another sweep going a little further down.

3. Finally, create one more sweep on the left side of the nail going even further down, until finishing a little above the nail bed.

Voila – three easy strokes result in a fun looking, floral-esque pattern, perfect for Valentine’s Day! Try it out with a pink or red color for the special day or add sparkles or another layer of darker polish to create an even more detailed look.

Hi Stylers – I hope you all had a great weekend! Today on ‘Manicure Monday,’ I am showing off some more nail products from Sephora. For this manicure, I used their ASAP 3D nail lacquer appliques. They come in a variety of designs and are currently marked down on the Sephora website from $15 to $7! They go on just like stickers, are super easy to use and are said to stay on for up to 14 days. The package also includes a small cuticle stick and nail file for easy application.

I received a few of these sticker sets for my birthday, so I was excited to give them a try and see how they worked – and I was quite impressed. This particular sticker set is called ‘Suspended.’

My friends and family must really know me because for my birthday this year, my sister and one of my best friends got me basically the same thing: a bunch of nail polishes and nail stickers from Sephora! Which means I am veryyy excited for upcoming Manicure Monday’s! 🙂

Today’s post features two Formula X nail polishes from my friend Amanda and my sister Cassie. I used the neon yellow-green from Amanda titled Zap (right) as the base coat and the black textured polish from Cassie called Blast Off (left) on top.

The textured polish is similar to a glitter, as it consists of a variety of speck shapes that when applied to the nail create a paint splattered look. Here it is, today’s manicure titled Textured Neon:

Today’s Manicure Monday post is titled ‘Birthday Gold.’ To create this metallic gold manicure I used two different nail polishes. First, two coats of Layla’s Golden Nugget, covered with one coat of Loreal’s Because You’re Worth. Perfect for my birthday on Wednesday!Paired with rings from Claire’s. And a peep of my new Fossil watch!

So — Fall is right around the corner, but it seems the season is creeping up on us a little bit sooner than expected. This ‘cool blue’ shade is perfect for the changing weather, because it’s still a bright color in honor of summer – but the darker blue hue let’s us know a new season is on the horizon.

Today’s ‘Manicure Monday’ goes to Live in the Momentum – Nicole by OPI.

Hi Stylers – I hope you all had a great weekend! I apologize for not posting last Friday, as I was moving into my new apartment which I absolutely LOVE. It’s been so much fun getting to pick the color schemes and decor of the apartment and I will try to share pictures with you soon. Anyway, here is today’s ‘Manicure Monday.’ Simple & pointed.

Going to the salon to get a manicure is probably a once-every-few-months kind of thing for me. My nails are naturally long, so there isn’t a need for me to get fakes or acrylics and I change my nail polish like a 5 year old girl that can’t decide on an ice cream flavor, so it’s never really worth paying $20 for a manicure meant to last a few weeks. The only exception is when I go home, because I love this little salon called Stylist Nails & Spa. I have found they do better work than any other place I have been and I have yet to find a worthwhile salon in Rochester. But, I only go there for the gel nail polish because I can’t do it myself, it lasts forever and it gives my nails that glossy ‘fake’ look – but it’s au naturel under there!

However, this time I swear I was acting as the guinea pig for a lady who has never done a gel manicure before – they were gloppy, melted and my nails were literally attached to my fingers. She must have thought it was just as bad as I did because when it came time to tip her she wouldn’t allow me… and hey, call me crazy, but my nails are one of my pride-and-joys so it matters to me whether or not they look good. I mean it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I liked the color (I’m still trying to embody Betty Draper through my orange nails) and the more I look at them, the better they look to me.

But.. next time.. I’ll think twice about dropping $20 on a manicure. Maybe it’s just better off to do it at home.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Today’s ‘Manicure Monday’ requires very little supplies. All you need is a variety of shades in the same color. I recently posted a purple gradient manicure but here it is again in green!

It’s simple and easy to do! And the gradient adds a little extra when you don’t have time to do an extravagant manicure.